prathapml

It (XP SP2 RC1 . build 2096) slipstreams perfectly into the original (non-SP1) release of winXP. In fact, its better to slipstream that into your CD, bcos you get all the updates/add-ons and more features at one go.

none. (no switches available/needed) Just install them, and copy it to your uA CD: copy the apps you want in "C:\Program Files\" to this location: "$OEM$\$Progs\" simple enough, right?

Do read this guide first: http://unattended.msfn.org/ The process is much the same for server 2k3 as well. @AaronXP: I'm amazed to see that the WinServer 2003 section of the guide is not present anymore at the above location - has it been moved elsewhere?

@wraith just use the standard drivers integration (through winnt.sif's OemPnpDriversPath) method. Everybody else: Why are you ppl so intent on using the ISS installer? simply use the normal method.

Hey guys, thanx for the suggestions, but neither maxXPsoft's idea nor |00|'s idea is very portable, because it depends on specifying the drive letter,etc. You aren't able to just simply have a swap file of XYZ MB on the systemdrive (whether it happens to be C:,D:,E:, etc.). The VBS method above is more efficient in that sense.

yeah, that's best. Do a re-format/re-install every 3 months at the least. Remember we 're talking of the most unstable OS on the block. Whether u r on winXX (i.e., to say any version from 95 to XP) or whether it is legitimate, it still gives the probs you describe.

Do have atleast 256 MB for any server - otherwise u will see those problems. Although WinServer 2k3 says 128 MB is the min. requirement, it is not too good to use it on that little amount.

Where did you get that idea? well, whatever....... It's working fine for me. like kingroach says, "for my computer RC1 and 2055 was more stable than SP1a", and the extra features are a bonus. I'm on SP2+XPlode/XPinstall since November 2003, and not once have I seen any inherent problem in any of the two (any hassles I faced/heard-of was due to user error or mis-configured XMLs). SP2 does not register XPlode.exe as a malicious program........ unless you have manually put it in the "dangerous" list. As for its functioning, it's fine with all versions of XP (gold/SP1/SP1a/SP2 betas/SP2 rc1). I've been using it with zero problems in both normal and GUIinstall modes. The details: Tested XPinstall v4.2 and XPlode 1.00 (on) Windows XP SP1 (v1106), SP2 (ver. 1257, 2055, 2096). I am just trying to help narrow down the causes of your problem by telling the conditions under which I know/can-confirm it works perfectly. Please note that I haven't used XPlode versions later than 1.00 (like the 1.04 & 1.05 you are talking about) - so I don't know about them. I'd recommend that you move back to v1.00 if you get too frustrated with 1.05.

@wraith: I mean exactly what Alanoll said.

Yay for you, wraith. Well, I say my answer is "none of the above" All the above things are being done anyway by us (or not needed). Just fix-up the "fixmain" param please.......... All else is fine. Basically, in GUIinst mode it should not need the fix main - it should fill the entire Y-coordinate of the screen aotomatically (let X-coordinate stay configurable). Thanks for all your attention towards XPlode (been using this since XPinstall 0.01).

Put this section in winnt.sif (of course, have the theme located in the right place in the OEM directory as per the path you give for the below). The theme you specify here will become the default (though it won't replace the Luna theme), and apply to all users - and be the default right from the first login. Modify it as per your needs - you get the general idea, isn't it. [Shell] CustomDefaultThemeFile="%systemroot%\Resources\Themes\Slate.theme" DefaultStartPanelOff=No DefaultThemesOff=No

None of all that makes any difference to us Indians. Some sort of a conspiracy is on to keep prices high - and make 1 year old hardware "feel" high-end. For example, the shops here are anyway pricey (for decent hardware). And there's no website located in India, that's worth buying from. And as for websites that sell/ship from warehouses outside India, I better not use them, because: 1. They mostly want credit cards (not legal for online buying yet, here; also consider that the transaction is insecure). 2. The government does its bit to promote computing for all (in the negative sense) by levying almost 250% customs/duties/etc. 3. After that comes landed cost, shipping charges, margins, etc. YUP! It's H-E-L-L (in case u didn't understand): HELL

a bit ???? u must've added this (below) too! "A lot like in India" yes buddy, we pay through our nose too. :goes looking for his nose which has got worn out, after having paid through it: (of course the credit card isn't worn out - 'coz no one accepts it here)

Put this in winnt.sif (without the comment-marks, of course): ;[OEM_Ads] ; Logo="Blue hills.jpg" ; Background=Winter.jpg The JPEGs have to be located directly in the $OEM$ folder. There! Your objective achieved w/o too much of mess-ups.

Is there any real way to automate applying of gpedit settings? could someone detail steps for secedit? Please don't just redirect me to read the chm - it's too complex. For example, I want to set IE's Options menu to not appear on the "Tools" menu, and it is possible thru gpedit. Now, I know it is basically a registry setting that is played with - but I want to do it with gpedit (or do *ALL* the things gpedit does).

Is there a way to pre-set the Internet Explorer's Temporary Internet Files cache? Like set it automatically to 2 MB perhaps?

"C:\Windows\Driver Cache\i386" I found this folder interesting. Maybe setup searches there for drivers before looking up the "OemPnpDrivers" path entry in winnt.sif? If so, then a big bother is saved, and we just need to dump all required drivers into "$OEM$\$$\Driver Cache". If anybody is able to take this idea forward, please post back.

21. The direct-copy to new install method In some cases, you see programs which use non-standard or un-automatable installers. In such cases, just install it first, and clean out the junk (like uninstaller) from the installed folder. Then configure the app's settings to how you want. Then, just make a winrar SFX archive of that folder (which silently extracts to %programfiles%) and enjoy. For example, I do the above, by enabling the "SFX" check-box, and pasting the below into the "Comments" tab in winrar ;The comment below contains SFX script commands Path=.\%programfiles% SavePath Silent=1 Overwrite=2Then put shortcuts to the app at: $OEM$\$Docs\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\YOURAPPFOLDER A sampling of the programs for which I use the above method: mIRC AbiWord TuxRacer (game) IrfanView+plugins MyIE2/Maxthon web-browser Mozilla Firefox/ThunderBird Reget Deluxe (download manager) WinCPUid AIDA-32 (today its renamed to Everest) Advanced File Organiser (cd-cataloguing) Resource Hacker WinImage WinHex The icing on the cake is that the RAR format gives better compression than it otherwise would be, and it still is better than the previous installer. This kind of packaging is useful for mostly small packages that do not keep any important information in registry.

20. If there's any app that uses the MSI as installer, substitute the "/QN" silent switch with "/QB-!" In the above, Q = quiet install N = no UI shown during install B = show a progress bar - = don't pop-up any modals (modals=message/error boxes) ! = don't show the "Cancel" button in the progress window There! It looks nicer now, and is id***-proof too.

19. Pre-configure/automate your page file If you still use .cmd files (batch files) to run your unattended install, you are in luck - you can do something that the others can't. On WinXP Pro, run this command from a batch file: start /wait cscript //nologo //B //T:600 %systemroot%\system32\pagefileconfig.vbs /change /I 256 /M 256 /VO *To set the min. and max. of the page-file to 256 MB on the default (*) drive (i.e., on C:\). -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Check out what else you can do - open a cmd window, and run "cscript %systemroot%\system32\pagefileconfig.vbs /?" (without the quotes, of course). For the others among us, who are stuck with XP home, or win2k pro, don't lose hope - here's what you have to do. a. From a WinXP Pro SP2 CD, copy the files "pagefile.vb_" and "cmdlib.ws_" and extract the files using winzip/winrar (they are cabinet files, so rename the files on the CD to ---.cab to extract). b. Put "cmdlib.wsc" to your system32 folder, and register it with: RegSvr32 /s %SYSTEMROOT%\system32\cmdlib.wsc c. Rename the VBScript file you extracted to "pagefileconfig.vbs" and put that also into your system32 folder. And then, you too can use the above command to set you page-file. If you don't have access to the 2 files mentioned here, it is attached in zipped format here. Just extract it, and put to your uA CD in the location "$OEM$\$$\System32". Even though other scripts run happily, this script decidedly needs to be run either manually from the command prompt, or through your batch file. Running it from XPlode/RunOnceEx or calling a batch file from them does not work. YOU HAVE TO DO THIS ONLY IN YOUR MAIN BATCH FILE - the other option is to copy and paste the command manually into a command prompt (and why would anyone do that, when they can configure the same graphically ?). NOTE: Pagefile setting cannot be done before first-logon, so you can't do this at T-12. You have to do it from GUIrunOnce, or anytime after that. setswap.zip

18. about logging from command-line Are you still experimenting with your CD? Carrying out some de-bugging on it? Or you want to use batch files, and want to see the output later-on (or don't want the person sitting during the uA install to see all the 'dirty' cmd.exe windows) ? This command will log (as text to the specified file) whatever output is received. Note that you won't see anything, except a blank screen (which can be hidden using cmdow.exe). For example, your [GuiRunOnce] section starts a batch file, which in turn runs the below command ECHO Please wait while important apps are installed (will take upto 10 minutes) ECHO ...... start /b /wait %systemdrive%\install\base\postIns.cmd >> %systemroot%\temp\instTime.log tools.zip

15. If you want the HKCU registry tweaks (above) to apply to all users, apply them through cmdlines or svcpack method (at the 12 or "13-minutes left" stage of setup). 16. The Windows XP ZIP is cr*p - its the first thing I switch off when I install a new PC. To switch it off open the Run box and type REGSVR32 /U ZIPFLDR.DLL ----OR---- automate the same through batch-files. 17. I'd recommend using the "cdimagegui" tool to create optimised ISO9660 images of your uA CDs (just do a search on google to download).

12. Totally pre-configure Internet Explorer options for XP unattended with your desired settings - click here 13. Opera 8 Use the "Help > Register" menu-item in Opera, and give your license info (username and key). You'll see that in "%programfiles%\Opera8" folder on your HD, the file "OUsr600.dat" is modified. That is your license file. Copy it to your uA CD, and set up your batch-file commands in such a way that the license file gets copied back to that same folder *JUST AFTER* Opera is installed. I also pre-configure Opera during unattended setup by auto-executing Opera-conf.exe (in the zip file - attachment). 14. Set the default sticky app on XP Start_Menu for "Internet" to Opera (previously it was IE). ;Set the Start Menu sticky apps [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Clients\StartMenuInternet] @="Opera.exe" [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\Opera.exe] @="C:\\Program Files\\Opera8\\Opera.exe" "Path"="C:\\Program Files\\Opera8" [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Clients\StartMenuInternet\Opera.exe] @="Opera" "LocalizedString"="Opera" [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Clients\StartMenuInternet\Opera.exe\DefaultIcon] @="C:\\Program Files\\Opera8\\opera.exe,0" [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Clients\StartMenuInternet\Opera.exe\shell\open\command] @="C:\\Program Files\\Opera8\\opera.exe"You can also pre-configure the sticky-app on Start Menu for E-mail. The limitation to the registry method of pre-configuring sticky apps is that it uses absolute paths (whereas using system variables is the recommended way). This limitation does not exist if you use an INF to do it - instructions with example. opera_conf.zip

11. Very useful in environments where some security is needed, or if your kids are of the curious/dangerous type. ;hide C: drive in "My Computer" or Explorer or Open/Save dialogs [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer] "NoDrives"=dword:00000004Note though, that with only the above being used, you can still type "C:\" into explorer address-bar, or right-click-and-explore the Start Menu and get access. This is good actually, since in this way most casual people are dissuaded from accessing the C: drive and you can yourself access the C: drive whenever you want by typing "C:\" into "Start >> Run". But if you want no exemptions, and need to completely restrict access (with emphasis on the word ABSOLUTE), read more info below:

8. Get rid of the XP "Command Prompt Here" powertoy. Instead, this tweak does the same (and what's more, works on win2k also). ;Get a command box Right-click menu option [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell\CMD] @="Command P&rompt Here" [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell\CMD\command] @="cmd.exe /k cd %1 " [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\shell\CMD] @="Command P&rompt Here" [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\shell\CMD\command] @="cmd.exe /k cd %1 " 9. "Open With..." becomes default for unknown file-types ;disable file association web-service - Bypassing "Browse web for program" to open unknown extension. [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System] "NoInternetOpenWith"=dword:00000001 10. I like to automate updates for win2k ;Enable Auto-updating on every Tuesday at 1:00 PM [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\Auto Update] "AUOptions"=dword:00000004 "AUState"=dword:00000002 "ScheduledInstallDay"=dword:00000003 "ScheduledInstallTime"=dword:0000000d